rigging

1886 - lots of ships sunk at moorings

14 Ships in total see www.irishwrecksonline.net/Lists/WicklowListA.htm

On 15-16th October 1886 a hurricane, at least equal in intensity to the Great Wind of 1839, devastated the island for two days before leaving a further trail of shipwreck, death and destruction in the Irish Sea, Wales, southern England, and northern Europe and may be the same that swept across Texas and Louisiana on the 12th. Its passage across Ireland was described in daily and regional newspapers; though many have little or no local information. Locally the Wicklow Newsletter had reports, 23rd October to the end of November, from Bray, Greystones, Wicklow and Arklow, but none from the mountains. The damage in Arklow where the flooding and storm damage were worst, was widely reported around Ireland. www.iancantwell.com/pdf/Floods.pdf

The worst damage happened in Arklow when floodwaters, of a height and volume not seen in living memory, floated one of the many dilapidated old hulks lying derelict in the upper part of the river. It collided with the Ida, a schooner owned by James Tyrell, which was hove down on her side and attached to a heavy barge by pulleys for repairs. The three were then swept into the fleet of fishing smacks, anchored lower down, carrying twentythree out of the harbour, while the Ida passed the new pier and was thrown broadside onto the pier slope on the southern side of the breakwater with the hulk’s keel lodged inside, where it rapidly broke up. Most of the smacks were holed below their water lines and sank at the river’s mouth, while the rest were swept out to sea www.iancantwell.com/pdf/Floods.pdf

Some Reports in the Irish times on 17th October 1886

Valhalla RYS was a steam yacht, much admired in her day for her beauty and unusual rigging. She was famous for her participation in the Kaiser's Trans-Atlantic Race of 1905, and the sighting of a Sea-serpent in the Atlantic that same year. She had several owners, most notably Joe Laycock a trans-Atlantic racing yachtsman and Olympian, and Lord Crawford, who employed her as a research vessel on three major voyages from 1902 to 1908, which resulted in the book Three Voyages of a Naturalist : Being an Account of Many Little-Known Islands in Three Oceans Visited by the 'Valhalla' R.Y.S., by M.J. Nicoll, published in 1908. During the Great War she served with the Royal Navy as a part of the Eastern Mediterranean fleet's Aegean Squadron during the Gallipoli campaign. After the War she became a French-owned fruit carrier, before being wrecked off Cape St. Vincent in 1922. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valhalla_(steam_yacht,_1892)

Streetview (I think): maps.google.ie/maps?q=Cappoquin,+Waterford&hl=en&...

Probably this landing stage: maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,609780,599367,7,9

Our first non-clydebuilt steamer. This one seems to be from Liverpool (I'm waiting for the evidence to download).

"A new steamer built at Liverpool P.S. Sybil (233 tons) replaced P.S. Meteor and became the youngest packet vessel at the Milford station in 1827. She was also the fastest steamer on the crossing with a record of 8 hours 13 minutes for a sailing between Milford and Dunmore East. " Hmm. I'm not sure that ship looks 70 years old.

NLI has a W.L. photograph of another steamer at the same place.. www.nli.ie/glassplates/L_ROY/L_ROY_03621.jpg